That afternoon, a few family members stopped by the apartment where Sara was babysitting. They gave her Thantos's messages: She was not to appear downtown.

If she had to go downtown in her job as a nanny, she had to carry a melted fork upright in her hand. This signal would indicate to the family that she was on a mission for her employer and thus off-limits.

If she broke these rules, she would be punished.

It was the street version of the Wiccan threefold law: The family could attack another youth, but not the person who owned them, whether that person was a street parent or an employer. The melted fork was their own stylistic flourish.

Sara didn't care. Or at least she pretended she didn't. She kept hanging around the square that day and the next, and the day after that. The other street kids asked her why she was putting herself in danger. Sara's answers were evasive. Nobody was going to scare her, she said. They were just kidding, anyhow.

Except they weren't.